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This cowboy with a white hat looks strong. See those eyes, he'll take
guff from nobody. He'll also be there to protect the less able when
needed. What the advertisers don't want you to recognize is that after
years of smoking, just as he is about to crush the bad guys, he'll collapse
helplessly in a coughing fit as his body tries desperately to expel the toxins
he has been sucking in. Try to imagine his eyes bulging and phlegm
shooting from his mouth as he is bent in half, unable to stop the cough.
Rest easy though, advertisers know that surrounding us with images like the one
below will keep such thoughts from our minds.
Unfortunately, they couldn't prevent
their model from developing, then dying, of lung cancer.

AUSTIN, Texas (August 27, 1999 8:03 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) - A
lawsuit filed by family members of the Marlboro Man, who died of lung cancer
after years of smoking, has cleared a legal hurdle and moved one step closer to
trial, attorneys said Friday.

U.S. District Judge David Folsom, in a ruling in Texarkana dated Aug. 14 but
disclosed publicly this week, declined to throw out a lawsuit filed by the widow
and son of Marlboro pitchman David McLean.

The suit names several companies, including tobacco giant Philip Morris,
maker of the popular Marlboro brand.

The suit, which Folsom sent to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for
review, claims the companies conspired to conceal the addictive nature of
nicotine.

If McLean's family is successful at the appeals court, a trial could begin
next year, attorneys said.

Michael York, a lawyer for Philip Morris, dismissed claims that smokers were
unaware of the dangers of tobacco prior to government warnings and predicted the
case would be dismissed before trial based on Texas law.

"There have been cases against cigarette manufacturers literally nonstop
every day for 45 years," said York. "People have been aware of the risks for
many, many years."

McLean was sometimes required to smoke up to five packs of Marlboros for a
single commercial, his family claims. A Texas native, McLean played a rugged
cowboy in Marlboro ads beginning in the 1960s. McLean developed emphysema in the
1980s and died of lung cancer in 1995 at age 73, according to widow Lilo McLean.

He began smoking in the late 1930s, well before the U.S. surgeon general
warned of the dangers of cigarette smoking, according to the plaintiffs'
attorneys.

McLean "tried to quit a number of times. He thought he was just weak, but it
turns out he was really hooked," said Don Howarth, one of the attorneys
representing McLean's family.

"We now know they have documents that say nicotine is the vehicle that hooks
them. If it hooks them, we've got a customer for life."

If Folsom's ruling is ultimately upheld, it will be of particular importance
to people who began smoking before the warnings came out, Howarth said.

"We took the position that they knew about addiction and weren't telling the
public way back then . . . and therefore it wasn't fair to preclude older people
who started smoking before," Howarth said. "Judge Folsom agreed with that."